all right it is 5:30 I will now call the select board meeting for March 17th to order if you can please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance Al the United States of America and to the
rep stand one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all thank you right first up is a discussion of interm ta position with Christopher Martin good evening good evening
you okay all right so um at our last meeting Chris had or sorry Glenn had mentioned that you would be willing to come on as our inim so yes we have until June 2nd before our new ta comes in okay
and um we were contracted with fer Valley Planning Commission but that's running out very shortly so we are interested in hearing what you um have to offer and how many hours you can give us and what you're thinking how many hours are you thinking of I think it was
at least 20 right Kathy at least 20 so and then some weeks you know stuff hits the fan you might have to be here a little bit longer like sowhere between 20 and 40 yeah well I can't do 40 I'll tell you I think would I'll tell you that much right now prob more between 20
and 30 because I'm currently doing 10 for the accounting position okay okay so um I don't have a problem yeah sweee uh do you have a top limit Chris of what you can do for hours the only issue I have
is that regarding my health my doctor's appointments come first yeah yeah I'm just letting you know that it's understood L okay that would be the only cavey I would put on this whole thing okay okay as to yet number of hours I
don't want to go over 40 for a whole week to be honest with you oh that's more than fair okay I didn't know if you had a certain number of hours because you're in retirement that you can work and it's not hours is more salary days
dollars okay I have to be careful of okay okay but as long as it's done by June 2nd I don't see an issue at this point and then the rate you were looking for is that comparable to what we were paying pioner Valley what were you
paying Pioneer Valley well with the middle man in between it I think it was 75 an hour I'm done I don't want 75 that's going to drive it up too quick UH 60 okay yeah 60 is fair yeah something
like that and um while we're talking about Chris doing the 20 I think it it would only be fair the other 20 would be on Kathy um and she would get the extra rate that we were paying her when she was doing it
before so oh that's fine agree I just want to make sure if she's doing the extra work on the other 20 hours that she gets the um extra money for that and she knows she can contact me anytime too so we'll go back to the like the
arrangement we had before when I was inter room up through the end of January so all right no I think I don't I think we're um I think it's helpful for the town um and and I spoke about this in
our last meeting just to had that uh really that transition period uh with a new uh Town Administrator coming in but also someone that's very familiar with our town um and AD understands where the town has been but also understanding
some of the philosophies moving forward as well because you were part of that and to me that meant a lot to have that person in place during a transition okay uh the only question I have is where are you in the budget process so actually Dave is coming in
today Dave D roer for the highway department um I think Kathy was going to set up two others for our next select board meeting um just like similar to what you did the Department's come in front of us and let us know line by line what they were thinking when they did the budget but I'm pretty sure they were
told 3% across the board that's what I that's what I had put in when I issued the the the budget documents as far as a a draft I know Ira berinsky did work on one and there was a meeting that was supposed to be held last Thursday but
that was put off so I don't know we didn't see a draft of that budget I think that's something that Kathy he did he share it with you y okay um but he also didn't want to do anything further if we were going to
have a change in ta because he didn't want to spend all that time if we were going to change what he did okay so um did set up a meeting um I didn't know who it would be but with Dave um lante
in the uh inum in the uh pod and Mary Jane from the school and that's on uh Thursday at what time 4:00 here just the four them was it four was was it four or five four four okay what it I thought thought it was five apparently it is
five I can't remember much right now told me five five then it's five that I sent to so it's going to be here for the four of them so the school process will start yeah I have it in as five and I think Chris once um once
you're able to take a look at it and give the board some advice because like I said we're going to hear Dave out today but we don't know where the budget lies as to should he be doing less should he be doing more we don't know okay so we're going to listen to him we're going to see what he what he's
requesting but um I think as the town accountant and the interm TA I think you would be in a better position to let us know okay if we need to lower that number a little bit or okay all right sounds good we are
little late we do know that yeah we are yeah we are a little late on this one so there were some ideas that were thrown out there and I think it was just too much too fast um from the from the other interim T okay so
um I think it helps to have the history and the continuity that you have so and I think that's also when I reached out to Tammy she also she would really appreciate the history of the town in the continuity okay um so she's looking
forward to working with you as well okay all right just have to I just one more question when's he starting well so we would have to appoint him so I will make a motion to appoint Chris Martin the temporary Town
Administrator until Tammy Martin takes over her full-time position on June 2 2025 when when does the appointment date start now no today as soon as possible
that work for you two minutes from now yeah yes we have to get through the budget so yes starting today right I'll second the motion um the only thing I would ask is Chris if you're willing to do a little bit here and there after she starts if she needs help they'll pay you
at the same rate um just to make sure that she has that transition to coming from so not that it necessarily has to end June 2nd but that you can help her kind of transition through okay so and she'll tell us her needs too she's also
agreed to work some Fridays as well y so all right those can work into scheduled for Fridays would be the best CU she'll be here so it'll definitely help out with a a transition period yeah okay all right all right any further discussion all in
favor thank you thank you thank you so you're G to take the seat now I wasn't planning on staying the night oh okay well Kathy wants me to stay at least for the discussion of what the warrant yep okay
right all right so we have five minutes before our uh public hearing so why don't we go to um John Matthews first citizen participation John Matthew 288 Taylor
Street just a follow up on that question I had the other day the other meeting about the statement of Interest sent to the building authority from the school department right my question now is now that this building authority has it how
did they respond to us from my understanding is that they don't do it they just hold it in place to know that we're still interested in it so they received it received it from our town yeah they looked at it and they pretty much just hold on to it because I
think my understanding from previous meetings with the uh school committee is that it's it's to let them know that we're possibly still still interested in in in the future if we want to do something in the future so they don't do
anything with it they just hold on to it so the next step would have to come from the school department yes from the town to the town yeah and you have no uh information on what they have what they're thinking because they they have
the statement of Interest they send it in okay we got it now the now the next big step is a feasibil feasibility study correct but that would have to go through the town um so uh actually if you don't mind Mr Martin was raising his
hand he had something to add for the statement of Interest okay what happens is we have a deadline to submit statement Adventures to get in the pipe right there the school submitted it to be put in the pipeline Yeah March of 2024 that does not mean that it will be
automatically funded exactly I don't realize that okay so what will happen is they take all the statement of interest and they will then get back to the school and may send somebody out to look at the type of work that they're looking
for to see if it's a viable project okay have have they done that I don't know if they've done it I haven't been involved with that much what happens then is they will set up a joint call a zoom meeting right with
school town and finance committee they talk about they asked the question do you have about $3 million to fund a feasibility stud that's what it was two years
ago we we either tell them we do or we don't if we don't the project dies okay but as far as you know the town or the school department hasn't responded that they that they haven't come out yet to look at the building to
look at what they're looking and they won't come out until the school department says yeah come on in yes so as far as you know the school department has said nothing despite year the best of my knowledge yes over a year that that L was s yes
the rest of Mone will that letter stay active sort of forever or is no they close down it's usually an annual opening for a statement of Interest submission so what they did in March of 24 is probably expired for the next
round of funding okay so they probably have to resubmit it Marchin of 25 which will be this month okay okay to be considered in the pipeline all right for consideration we're moving
for now a lot of times since we the msba will call and ask are all Town officials in favor of this project now that means the select committee
Finance if we're all not in agreement that it's a project that we want to move forward it will not be be considered okay nsba wants to fund successful projects they don't want to fund something and then find out the K
doesn't want to yeah exactly okay so I don't know if it's alleviating any of your concerns that it's just going to move forward no there are other steps other conversations other meetings that have to ur prior to it going forward to a feasibility I realize that my my
interest was over year year ago the authority get we a letter and I would think the authority would say Okay town I'm going we're going to contact you to see like you just said is
everyone on board but apparently they received a letter and they didn't do anything with it because they may they may have contacted the superintendent of schools at that time but but you don't know and I don't know and ask are all Town
officials in agreement with this and you would have to contact of the select for yes so we have to sign the letter of interest for the um msba so in order for them to submit that letter has to come in front of the select board we sign it
and send it over to them right so like Chris said if it's expired then it I would call the superintendent's office you can inquire see if they did anything with it this year but nothing has come in front of us this year yeah as of right now but what the other interest I have is that um you know the town is
considering to spend a heck of a lot more money than the December 11th meeting in 2023 stated did right but like Chris said if the building authority gets back to us and
say is everyone on board people have to realize like Chris has said it's $3 million not necessarily all of ours because the state will cover some of it but it's still a significant amount of money the $3 million the state won't cover that's on the town it's a
feasibility study for the Fe for feasibility that's on us the $3 million for the feasibility study the state will not give you any money back for that they'll only give it to for the final project and it's a certain percentage right yeah yeah but John I do want to say thank you so much I know you've come
to several select board meetings um asking questions about the school and I know we have it on our agenda to uh develop a charge for the high school options committee so if the other two board members are willing I would like you to make an appointment for our next select board meeting and we can sit down and make
that charge thank because I know you have a lot of ideas and I just want to make sure that we're incorporating all of them in the charge so that we can get that committee started for you yes thanks for the update I appreciate thank you all right next is going to be uh
public hearing on Monday March 17th 2024 at the senior Ceder Building located at 10B West State Street gramy Mass to Grant permission to massachusett Electric Company doing business as National Grid to locate FS wires and fixtures including the necessary sustaining and protect protecting
fixtures along and across the following public ways plans # 31109 177 haror Street all right so this is for National Grid to install one so pole on Carver Street beginning at a point
approximately 480 ft east of the center line of the intersection of munsing Ridge National Grid will be installing new pole number 59- 84 across from p59 to replace an old tree guy wire that is being removed gry Mass location
approximately as shown on plan attached wherefore it prays that after due notice and hearing as provided by law be granted a location for and permission to erect and maintain poles and wires together with such sustaining and protecting fixtures as it may find necessary said poles be erected
substantially in accordance with the plan filed here withth marked Carver Street gry mass number 311 9177 also for permission to lay and maintain underground laterals cables and wires in the above or intersecting public ways for the purpose of making
connections with such pools and buildings as each of said petitioners may desire for distri distribut in purposes your petitioner agrees to reserve space for one crossarm at a suitable point on each of said polls for the fire police Telephone and Telegraph signal wires belonging to the
municipality and used by ex exclusively for municipal purposes copies of the proposed plans number 3110 9177 Carver Street gramy Mass are available in the board of selectman's office 9: to 3:00 p.m. Monday through
Thursday 9 to 12 noon on Friday located at 10B West Street Senior Center building second floor welcome National grit good evening Ken evening Ken Kel for National Grid um this is one of several remaining Tree
Guys on that street this one in particular is across from a new house being built that needs a Transformer so this is holding up them until they can we can replace their pole and give them Transformer okay everyone get a chance to see the
location I believe the others will be on the next month or two months from now I think there's three or four more so it's necessary to bring power to them the house it's supporting what's already there and making it more reliable the ones that are in the trees have been in there for we don't even
know how long and they're not going to stay in there forever ready I will make a motion to allow National grit nope is there any of Butters oh I'm sorry come on up you're just um do you
want to say yeah you just come up here to the mic thank you Kathy you're welcome my apologies so just name and address uh Edmond Cousino 245 Carver Street uh grany Massachusetts um I had a couple of questions and I wanted to get a better understanding of the poles
going in um I don't exactly have a problem with this one in particular I did notice that there is a stake for the pole further down that would be p number 60 um in understanding that there is going
to be a Transformer on the one going in but p60 as well as in disrepair if you would and the tree guy wire on that one is significantly worse than the one that is being proposed it's actually attached to a
tree that has been cut and dead for some years now um I'd like to know if that one was also in plan to be replaced or moved or anything like that I mean it's got a wicked lean to it um slacking both guy wires like you'd said though
especially one being replaced um my concern is with both of them and then remaining concern would be with the trees around where that pole is going in what's going to happen with them where they're going everything's just going to get chipped up into the woods again um
those are my questions and concerns thank you so these P are solely just for a guywire going across the street right to replace what's in a tree now there will be no power on these pools unless you would require something on your property right behind it we are the
reason we're only doing this one poll on this petition is because it's holding up the service across the street the other are being addressed and they'll be on the next meeting I knew they were that but I don't want to hold it up with more polls and make it more involved understood um and as far as Sky wires go if it's not right where the pole is
going we don't intend on doing any Tre triming yes we don't P to right um there's no wires to take down there was that that there's actually one very big tree going directly right next to it um I would imagine would be trimming involved just to get an arm in there was
this 9 yes this is 59 so I think the tree was to the right and the pole was to the left if I remember correctly Yeah by like a couple of feet yeah so we don't really need any clearance there's no cross arm there's nothing going on the pole it just right on the pole if if you guys have no problem with that or
anything my only concern was it just getting chipped up and kind of dumped um that happened a few years ago when it kind of made a mess of things um especially when that other one got cut that's going to be replaced um just we really didn't want that to happen again there's some sometimes different types
of trimming if it happens during a storm they drop it and they move on right if they do maintenance trimming and sometimes the town does trimming even near our wires usually we remove them right as Lo stumps we don't usually go take the stumps out yeah we usually do our best
to haul all the wood out of there okay perfect other than that that was U all my question concerns about it and um 60 is going to be having one a card and try to get you details of when it'll be on the next me rep I didn't want to replace all of them
I just didn't want to hold up the customer of service understood thank you thank you okay now I will make a motion oh thank you we will now close the public hearing if there's nobody else that wants to speak make a motion to allow National
Grids to install a pole on Carver Street one ISO pole Massachusetts electric company doing business as national grid for permission to erect the poles wires and
fixtures described in the order herewith recorded and that we mailed at least 7 days before said hearing a written notice of the time and place of said hearing to each of the owners of real estate as the determined by last
preceding assessment for taxation along the ways or parts of ways upon which the company is permitted to erect poles wires and fixtures under said order and that thereupon said order was duly adopted I'll second the motion any
further discussion all in favor all right I to sign the yeah all right so you all set thank you very much thank you
all right so our next meeting is not till 6 Kathy do you have um anything for us I don't we can do departmental reports and then Circle back second I will make a motion to accept
the departmental reports I'll second the motion any further discussion do we know where the water came from on the West Street Building I was actually going to ask the same thing okay um Kathy on the departmental
reports it did say that the West Street Building had groundwater entering in three rooms in the cellar um is that from heavy rains from the water melting the snow I don't know but I will definitely
ask Jeremy and can have him um right back to you guys there is a concern there because it's because of high water take there and anytime you get a significant rain or snow that we've been going through recently
it has a tendency of coming in up through the floor that's the issue we bring around the because of a high water table so it's not going in through the sides it's coming up from the floor bubbling up basically yeah is it kind of um like people have sub pumps in their basements and they
just like pump it out to a different area so is it is it coming through floor drains do you know Chris or floor it's just bubbling right which is bad that's hydrostatic pressure that could create problems with that yeah make a great indoor sweet area
yeah and then just to help Jeremy out because it is disgusting can you lock those boxes where the grill to at jeine Park know we put the wooden box over it but can we lock it so people can't open it and put their do poop bags in there like I don't know there's got to be some way to secure it because that's
disgusting people Grill on that in the summer and they're just dumping their poop bags taking the top off and just putting the poop right in it yeah we got something made to go right over it well we've got the boxes but there's got to be some they they can't lift those boxes okay I know Jeremy like a latch or
something on there with a with a lock all right a good chain underneath Lo down all right so anything else that anyone wanted to talk about for the departmental
reports all in favor all all right we don't have enough time to move on to something else before our next one we only have a minute um before our next meeting but I did want to let the board know that after speaking to Michael Downey for the DCR tree planning
pilot program he suggested that I talk to Jacob Mao who is our state Forester um I had a conversation with him last week him Jeremy and I will meet at du frames park on Thursday at 2:15 to walk the area and do soil samples and
stuff like that but he told me today he actually uh reached out to me and said make sure I put in for the Low Land enrichment planting because there was only six left and they're going fast so I did put in for it it doesn't mean we're guaranteed it we still have to
wait for Jacob to come on Thursday but it's going to do 10 witch hazel 10 yellow popler and 10 Swamp White Oak that's the only package that was left um with DCR so I just want to keep the board informed with that and
Jeremy and I will meet with them on Thursday thank you all right so our next meeting is 6 PM the select board will hold a public hearing on Monday March 17th at 6 p.m. at 10B West State Street Senior Center
building one to consider the transfer of a retail section 12 wine and malt beverage on premises license from Martius Pizza incorporating doing business as Pizza Palace to A Mir Incorporated Student Business as Pizza
Palace two to consider M K as manager for Amir Incorporated premises described as follows one-story building with two bathrooms main entrance in front of building exit and rear located at 31
West State Street Grammy Mass so is Mr martiz here or I'm I'm here wa I'm here no I would table it see no one's here and we can continue it to our next meeting on the 31st did he know that he
had to be here he did he but I believe he's out of the country he was going to have his lawyer come oh okay would the process have to start all over with the posting and everything long okay is the board okay with that I'm
okay with tabling that has no representation so contining it excuse me our next meeting Kathy is March 31st
at 6 at 5:45 I don't I'm not sure what you have on our agenda right now nothing I can move anything else I have but we need it doesn't matter what time it's got to be on it we'll do 5:45 March
31st was that the motion discussion yes I'm sor question now we I will make a motion to continue the license transfer of Pizza Palace
until March 31st at 545 yeah I'll second a motion any further discussion no discussion we are just contining the public hearing
in favor I I right and then Highway Department Dave D roer is not till 6:15 so we will move on to approve and sign maintenance warrants I will make a motion town of grany
authorized for payment warrant number 57 dated 3:14 2025 with a total dispersement for Warrant 57 of 93,6 15911 I'll second a motion any further
discussion all in favor by I will make a motion the town of grany authorize for payment payroll account summary warrant number 56 dated three 11
2025 with a total dispersement of $2,144 89 second a motion any further discussion I will be abstaining from the S board and the teacher salary all in
favor I I I and I have a vote have necessity for the select v s than thank you next is to approve and sign a special town meeting warrant for 4825 should
business okay the Commonwealth of Massachusetts town of grany special town meeting Hampshire County to one of the constables of the town of gramby and the county of Hampshire greetings in the name of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts you are hereby directed to to notify and warn the inhabitants of said Town qualified to vote in elections and town Affairs to meet at the East Meadow Elementary School on East State Street in said toown on Monday the 8th
day of April next at 7 p.m. or as soon thereafter as a subject matter of this warrant made then and there be reached and there to act on the following articles to win article should I read the you can
read it and I'll read article one article one to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate transfer from available funds transfer from stabilization funds transfer from free cash borrow and or Bond
9,913 361 or a greater or lesser amount for the purpose of funding the renovation of the West Street School building into municipal offices or take any other
action in regard thet given under our hands this sth 17th day of March in the year of Our Lord 2025 I think there was supposed to be two articles there are two articles well so that was one of them Chris right and
then the other one was the one with two so we have to decide right if we're going to go with one or if we're going to go with two so I would just read the art the second article and then we decide yeah so article two to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate transfer
from available funds transfer from stabilization fund transfer from free cash borrow and or Bond 2,500,000 or a greater or less amount for the purpose of funding the
remediation of hazardous materials demolition debris removal and leveling the site of West Street Building or take any other action in regard there to given under our hands this 17th day of
March in the year of Our Lord 2025 okay I'll second a motion any further discussion so I think um I think going with the article the special Tom warrant with the two articles is the best choice
because if the people don't want to renovate the building then we need to do something with it because we're just wasting money and maintaining it so and Chris if you want to come up that kind of what you guys were leaning towards actually uh I had Spen with the
chair of the finance committee and instead of going back to like we were were back in 2017 we had a study done this laid there this way either we're going to renovate it or we get rid of it yep that way just
if the article fails then we have to come back again trying to look for money to to demolish it here's your choice either we renovate or we get rid of it and we have to a different plan of action on addressing the needs of town offices but there will be a cost to
taking again yeah absolutely um there was a question I have for you Chris it just left me but I'll okay I think that anyone have anyone have any no it's in reality is not either or because both good fail
so correct there possibilities so I agree also that we go with the both articles and let the town meeting and Town's people decide which which direction we're going in and I think too like Lynn was saying you
can always for article one it can always be amended say they don't want the full 9 million but they're willing to do the smaller portion and then the other portion Waits you can always amend it for the other options give me aend on the Flor yeah but I think that lays
out the big options right keep it and renovate it or raise it um yeah I I agree I think our job is to bring it to the the voters of the residents of gry
left them the side okay so I will make a motion I'm sorry and he second you seconded we were just discuss sorry so if there's nothing more all in favor two I all right thank you Chris
um new after Traer Traer all right our appointment tra well it's the only thing we got on here so we'll get Kathy we don't have any common viit or entertainment no okay thank you
Chris so um our last thing is you Dave come on up so appointment with the highway superintendent for a fiscal year 26 proposed budget we get going on the budget um I was looking online the uh last meeting
you guys had you were talking about storm water um I haven't heard back from Town Council I gave him the packet that pineer Valley prepared for us but I think the timeline is very
tight and I just caution I don't know if who's going to be here Runing the show is going to be Gris just double check the timeline because even if it passes it's my understanding that authorizes the select board to create regulations
but then you have to make the regulations have a public hearing propose the regulation public hearing and then approve the regulation at a board meeting so all of that has to be done before that deadline expires and
I mean so our annual town meeting the first one was May so we had it on there for May and Brian ool knows that it's for May yep so and then that will give and I think the deadline was June 30th right or July 1st June 30th so then the
select board would have a month month and a half where they would have to do the public hearing write out the regulations yeah it's going to be tight like you said but okay I'm just okay cautioning you um we'll make sure we keep it on yep to make sure that we have
it water regulations and that's assuming everything goes well at at the town meeting I mean we have to make sure that we sell that and tell the the the the town voters that there is no choice choice we have to pass we have either
you pass the the bylaw or you're voting for a fine from the EPA hope hope hope your budget's better to that jeez well Kathy has me to talk to about bridges again and I know I spoke Year all ago about
bridges we'll cir circle back to that in a minute um I know Dave wasn't on the board I don't think when I spoke to you last about the bridges and I'm feeling a little better if you're saying Chris is on board um
finalize these budgets because what my first impression was not good um what was happening behind the scenes I don't know if it was true or not but the rumors I was hearing were were not good and I'll leave it at that um the first thing I just wanted to
point out I mean Chris and I have worked together for a number of years um when there's a problem that comes up we sit down and talk about it and work it out dpws are the first department to get cut
we have no political pull if the schools get cut there's a thousand people here you know at the next meeting protesting if the Fire gets cut they got 500 people here next meeting protesting
if the police get cut same thing the the impact is immediate with those departments okay with ours you can cut our department and I'll get into that in a minute and you don't see the the damage for years and it takes years to
recover and I just wanted to before we get into nuts and bolts of my budget I just wanted to point out a few things to you these are cost increases since 2000 about 25 years worth if you look way over at the right you can see how
hundreds of percent increases have gone up if we go up 3% a year which which is what we've been doing you're cutting my budget okay because I have less money to get the same work accomplished take a look just at the last few years if you
go down middle of the chart pavement lines look from 2000 to 2025 the cost have doubled that's 20% increases a year and we're living with a three so I just want to make that point we don't
have to go into every line item there I just wanted to show what we're dealing with okay I mean if you look at the past five years you go back that far you just you see have change in five years the cost massive increase if you take out this little
color chart that I gave you here and this will tell you the whole thing in in a nutshell of what happens to our department when cuts are made the green line at the bottom is chapter 90 funding and tens of thousands of
dollarss so we were getting in the early 2000s late 1900 1990s about $220,000 a year in funding okay on the green line now about the time of The Big Dig the
state says they didn't cut our funding they did in early 2000 2001 2002 our funing funding was cut for chapter 90 less than half of what we were getting
previously okay it took well into 2009 2010 to come back back up to levels we were getting in the 90s at the same time the black line is the cost of asphalt asphalt skyrocketed in those
years the red line is pavement condition okay we started off when we first started doing when I first got here we started pavement management our Pavements the average pavement was a 70
which is not bad for the average respectable as you see it fell off a cliff it went down to 60 and down to a low of 42 over the years because of the of the cuts in funding and the cost increases we we
were buying less pavement than we needed to buy every year and you don't see that in one year it takes many years for that to happen it took what 58 years from 2000 to 2007 before you saw the Pavements go over the over the cliff
because we're not doing enough on maintenance that's what happens when you cut a dpw's budget long term you can be a hero come in here one year and make a huge cut you're not doing the town any favor I mean it won't bother me at all I'll
just retire early but um what's the dotted line on there the dotted line corelation is extra money that Chris got us because he saw this and I was I mean again I I I'm I feel a lot better knowing that Chris is going to be the
the temporary the interim through this budget process because he knows what we've gone through he's seen this I've we've talked to him I've explained this information year after year in annual reports telling everybody that we aren't spending enough
on roads the payment conditions were deteriorating all the way up into 2015 we finally turned the corner in 2015 the state started giving us much more money and the town gave us more money and we got the we're we're finally
getting the pavement conditions almost back up to where they were when I was first hired it took that long and I just hate to see the next person come in here and go through the same 25e learning curve that I just went through
and we're only talking roads here Bridges forget it I mean this is a the last chart last point I'll drive home quickly this is all news it's 1985 this is serve information put out by usdot
okay if you maintain your Pavements in the first 12 years there's very little drop in quality of the Pavements and the only thing that's not applicable is a dollar amount I used to say every dollar invested in that first part of the curve
saves you four well multiply that those numbers by five for every $5 you spend now it's going to save you 20 later and what what'll happen is if you keep your Pavements in good shape Pavements deteriorate with time you spend a little money it brings it
back up to here and then it goes down again below that curve okay but it's still a lot cheaper than rebuilding the entire Road I and Dave you can probably answer this question too it it seems like the quality of asphalt
isn't the same nowadays no it isn't it isn't um what's happening they get they squeeze more out of the oil of the crude for gasoline and other products used to
be everything went to the bottom you got the tars and everything else for for asphalt cement but now they they had more chemical break it down more so there's less of the properties that you want in the asphalt cement so you don't
get the longevity that you once did um that's the world in which we live in now but um nothing we can do about that other than do our best to try to keep the payments in good condition is there more recycled product in it now than
there ever was almost yeah almost all of it almost all of it it's very rare that they don't recycle some percentage of wrap in the in the pavement right and it you're getting older asphalt that's a little more brittle so
you've they they add chemicals and add um things to improve the quality but it's still not as good as it was and we're not getting 20 years out of a pavement ever um if you get 12 years you're doing doing
well and I would agree absolutely I think you see that um not on local roads but all sudden on the highways you see how how quick you know after highways paved whether it's 91 and mass bike and you know four or five years later it's
like an old roll then yeah Mass Pike was atrocious just recently the good news is um for if anybody wants any bedtime reading I've testified to the State Transportation committee I've been on a committee select committee where there's only 10
members that were working under the uh Chief Operating Officer Megan what's her forget her last name it's in this report Hagerty um of that's right under the Secretary of Transportation above the director of mass the mass
Highway um and the director of administration and Finance on this report explaining to them the problems we have small towns I was the smallest town represented there there was twer ourself myself
um mikale from Gloucester Mike Collins from Beverly there was a few other dpws a lot of town administrators few few there was 10 of us um from small towns Big Towns wher I think was the biggest town that was represented in in the in the committee we looked at a number of
different things trying to find a way to make the chapter 90 program more effective and protect us from losing value as the cost of asphalt goes up if they just kept it level funded at $200 million a year before long we're not
going to be able to do anything um it's just not enough money but we got the governor's year they are proposing 300 million doll over a multi-year contract and a portion that
this is the best part for us a portion of that money will be based solely on road miles we looked at a number of different options options and the committee decided that it was probably unwise to push for a change in the base
chapter 90 program chapter 90 is distributed by road miles population and trip destination it's I think 50% or some don't hold me to the numbers 50% something road miles 20 or 30 population and 20 or 30 on on the other Factor but
now a lot of people are telecommuting from work um they don't even use the roads going into Boston right they don't need to they're they're working from home or whatever are you sure every time I go to Boston I there's still G lot but it's people use it I don't know if it's all
workers but in any case um a lot of things have changed and the committee recognized that but they felt we would come up holding the short end of the stick if we tried to push a change and you're going against Boston
and Wier and all of these other big cities they're going to take a cut because if we switched to totally just road miles the big cities would lose and we would we would make out like Bandits when we get an extra let's
say normal year like last year we had 200 million if if they gave us an extra 100 million and based it solely on road miles we would double our allotment even though we only got an extra half so it it's a real benefit to us to
look at road miles and not population work because we don't have any we don't we don't have a large population we don't have Road Ms what the committee finally agreed to was to keep the base 200 million as it was
so there's no loser Boston's going to get their big share of the pie any additional funds if there's 100 million more would be based more on road miles than anything else so we'll come up and most of the cities and towns not
just us I mean all of the small cities and towns will get a more Equitable allotment put it that way so that's the good news for our budget so I mean it makes sense and you know I seems It's you know it's way it should be you
know some of that you know state taxes coming back to the local communities helping out where it's needed and the bad news on we've been trying to just maintain the Pavements I
mean Chris has funded us on some special articles for the trees when we have problems it was uh I don't know I forget what the total was maybe three three or $400,000 over the years I think we're in good shape on the trees we're sort of
getting ahead of the curve now and when Chris and I originally talked when he was still administrator um we didn't request an extra article or anything from for this year I think we're okay there um he gave us extra money on pavement a few years
back um I want to see what happens with this committee report this year uh hopefully we get quite a bit more money from the state in a couple different ways
um he also gave us money on some storm water issues as well there's an article out there that we've been drawing off of the problem is when we get diverted to pave a a parking lot at the the annex or pave the cemetery it takes a
chunk of our labor out of a very short construction window season we're still trying to get all the roads done but when you tie up our whole crew for a week or two at a time it's a week or two that we don't have to work on other things
um we'll do whatever you want and work wherever you want wherever the town feels that they need us at the moment but the point I'm making is we don't get to do as much on storm R I know we changed three catch basins near your
house and there's some other big issues coming under the next permit I don't know if it's going to happen or not with the new Administration and what's going on at EPA right now but some of the proposed new permit is budget H Busters
for us and for all all the cities and towns in in the state it will bankrupt us uh I mean they're talking about us replacing every catch bacin in town bringing them up to the newer standards which might even involve replacing the entire storm drain system
in town I mean you're talking millions and millions and millions of dollars what that said David too I think that's important for for us from our seats to have those conversations with our our state reps and our state senators and so we can explain to them these type
of um things they vote on the real impact that has on a town our size and and and and you know they are our voice when it comes to the state house and we you know we need to make sure that we utilize them as such because I just said
those are things that can truly impact this town a great deal we've we've already pushed back with pioner value Planning Commission and the storm water committed there's 26 towns I think that are involved and I was very vocal uh
pushing back this is a an exercise in futility it's going to it's going to accomplish nothing to improve storm water I don't know if any of you have uh taking any soils courses or anything but when you do a soil gradation you shake the soil through a
series of cves down to a 200 Civ which is almost uh like fabric you can't even see holes in it it's so so fine if more than 50% goes through a 200 Civ it's called a clay siiz particle or silt sized particle so you you've got the
percentage of your material that's above the 200 that's all the sand and gravel sizes Stones whatever and they're different percentages in each each each thing but the the clay size particles to determine the grain size
and the clay size particles you put it in a CER of water and you shake it up and you measure it with a hydrometer there's a a law that's called Stokes law and it determines by how how long it takes for the specific gravity of the water to change the size of the
particles that are settling out in that column it takes like 24 to 48 hours for most of those particles to settle out do you think changing a catch basis from a 2ft sump to a 4ft sump is going to change anything from the soil going
through that during the storm all the clay-sized particles are still going to be in the Connecticut River you're not giving it time to settle out of four 48 hours or more so these these people writing these laws they're not Engineers they're
environmental activists that have no knowledge of the real world and how things work and they're going to cost all of us a lot of money for nothing uh so we push back uh I don't know what's going to happen I don't know if they're going to strike
that requirement we'll see what happens with when it gets passed if it gets passed I know we've got a new Administration in there they're looking at all regulations that the EPA is doing but that's a that's going to be a budget Buster for
us I mean if if that even that little piece of it goes through and and every other community in the state David is there something that you can write up and maybe uh bring Chris
into it too put together and that's maybe something that we can send to you know uh the State Rep and state senator with the signatur from the select for I think it's a little early though because the EPA might slash that all together and change
the permit I think we have to wait until it's finalized and put in it's still in in the comment period nowos change but also might be good to put it on the radar too that you know even coming forward is some things you
know and their discussions with you know their their colleagues some of the stuff may come up so it's it's you know it's a talking point it's a talking point for us right now so you know it could be a talking point for them at some point so just so that that they're aware of it
that's all you you can put it sorry you can put into that terminology that you know this is in the beginning phase however if this moves on you s conern think about you yeah okay yeah whatever
um so basically I I think we met a year ago or so um I know Dave you weren't on the board at the time about bridges I mean the state inspects every bridge every two years including the small Bridges which are called bris under the
Mast program which are bridges under 20 ft in length which um I think the latest one you just saw come through was New llo Road yes okay yeah there's
always things that they're going to put on there and they're going to say um prioritize the repair and if it doesn't say critical it's not it's not imminent failure or anything
like that we don't have the money to make maintain the roads never mind the culverts never mind the bridges that have a one rebar piece of rebar showing when there is a critical item like a scour item we had some on the Carver
Street bridge last year we immediately get out rip wrap it whatever because it's a it could be a source of immediate failure of a portion of the bridge if it undermines a wing wall or something like that we have been out on New llo Road
new ller Road's a special case um we rip wrapped out when I first started here and it was a miserable job we had to set up conveyors and just about place all the stones by hand there's not enough room to get in machine under there or anything what
happens is kids go underneath the bridge fishermen and the traffic kicks the rip wrap down the slope and it erods a little bit it's not an imminent failure nothing to get excited about but it's
just another one of those items with enough time and money yeah we'd get to all of this stuff but there isn't enough hours or money in the day to do to cover all these bases so um I try to stay ahead of anything
Bridge related that's critical if there is a a scour or something like that we're going to get right on it um we did early on we did some repairs on on when I first started 20 20 years ago on the North Street Bridge we did a lot of concrete
work um that bridge was getting to be pretty bad shape um there was a lot of Reb bar that was exposed it was falling and we resurfaced it but to get the permitting necessary to do that work and the labor necessary
to do that work or the cost to hire a contractor to do that work I mean we just don't have the money I mean to do a little small repair here or there yeah no problem we'll be we'll be on it but um the bigger stuff I know you've seen some on like
ammer Street the culverts there they're talking about corrosion on the water line it would take us several years to permit the sheet piling that would be required to dewater just so we could get in there and try to repaint or provide some Corrosion Protection at the water
line the millions of dollars you're going to spend you might as well just let the thing fail and put in a new cul like we did on Bachelor Street a new concrete box Culvert so and I weigh the the cost benefit
before we get involved with any of those type of projects and if it you know a lot of them were rolling the dice on yes um because there's no way to predict how bad or how long it's going to last but
um the bridges are not my biggest concern it's the culverts and I know that there's a culvert further up on ammer Street way up towards the top near 116 that we've been in there and repaired it already once it's rotten the bottom of it rotten we're just on borrowed time with
a lot of these culverts the one on Bachelor Street we just did cost a million dollars to replace we have 142 culverts in town run the numbers out I actually just want to clarify that the one about your street that was
funded through the state right it was funded by eversource okay as a mitigation project because conservation let them go through the wetlands and all these things it was sort of well never mind we'll we'll just call it a mitigation project we all paid for it but to your point you pay for it in
your electric rates but to your point it costs a million dollars to do it so that's cost a million dollars to do one and I would not have even done that one that's a Culver that I replaced 20 years ago for about $5,000 it's a culvert that is a on a
stream that dries up every summer it's not even a perennial stream that would have been the last Culvert on my list to do and because again you're not letting engineers make the decision you're taking this out of the picture it's made by made by en
environmental people that have blinders on to everything else they're looking at one thing only oh that's a that's a coold water fishery and that's the one we want to do even though that cover would have probably lasted 50 more years when we have other
covers that are on their last leg and we're holding our breath with a wing and a prayer that they don't fail do they have grants and stuff like that that come up for the coverts and the bridges they do but there's again a a fairly large percentage that we have to come up
with um okay so it's one of one of the grants that I was thinking about going for was the the bridge on it's a brri on because there's a separate BR program culverts are different program but the bridge on Carver street
is a small bridge and Mt has a special program with that you can apply for design funds one year there's there's a match we would have to come up with some money out of our chapter 90 money to to match but if we do it in two phases one
to get get the design done and then apply for a second BR Grant to do the construction work it still would be advantageous to the town to do it that way the culverts are less advantageous I mean shall I say
um at a million dollars a copy and that the the percentage of the grant is much less from the the state um they give you some money but we'd be spending a lot more of our road money that we that I
just showed you we were not even spending barely enough now and and I don't know if you saw the black curve we're going in again the last year or so asphalt prices have gone spiking again because the cost of oil went up so if we
don't get this increased in chapter 90 money we're going to be starting to go the other way on on the pavement conditions again so not to be the bearer of bad news on the bridges but they're my least concern I think um the culs are my
biggest biggest worry do you know they which ones they're going to next is there a list of them or do they just pick them randomly or they must they must know that they want to do there's only there was only one that was a oneoff f as far as inspections go
inspections on culverts is us they don't on on The Bridges bridges every bridge every two years they every two years all right so you might see some come in this year for two or three Bridges and then next year you'll see two or three other ones they actually get a print out they
talk about the bridge talk about the quality yeah I just we're getting them like one or two at a time so I was curious as yeah it's on their schedule when when their Bridge inspection teams go out we'll get the report immediately after they get done okay but it again as
far as I'm aware there are some issues with some of the bridges nowhere near as bad as some of the mot Bridges I mean you go see the Lego blocks that they put under some of these all the uh Timbers and whatever holding uh bridges that are
just totally falling apart um I mean our bridges yeah they need work um in a perfect world yeah would be on them and have a crew working on them but um not enough hours or money
yeah so after having said all of that we can get to the line items of my budget I pretty much um there there are a couple of issues in our department uh one is labor I had to
fire an employee last week uh because that was the replacement employee for Russ who retired in July and the employee didn't get his license he was supposed to get it before winter Winter's come and Gone Chris wanted to fire him in December I put it off till
February gave him till February to get his license one the C CDL okay still didn't have his license and he was terminated last week um I've got another guy retiring this year I'm not that far off and
another guy besides that so there's issues um succession plan is a problem it's a real problem with funding and that's something when the New Town Administrator comes in that's going to be first on my agenda to
deal with yeah because right now we are not competitive and I know Chris wants to put another ad out for a driver I don't expect to get any responses back from anybody that's
qualified oh no because you you can't compete with the private companies right now I can't compete with the other towns around yeah but again we'll get into that in in in off camera no but it's you know David is it's reality and we've
seen that just the board itself as you know a Town Administrator position that uh we have now we um our building Commissioners you know we we're seeing that and again it's becoming what other towns are the labor pool out there is
shrinking and is and to get those those quality or specialized positions as that is because it really is you know you know say b a bidding war war with either another town or a business you know and
and the person is looking up for their best interest where they can make the most amount of money yeah it's a challenge and and trust me I've run businesses in the private world with my father and uh I I know the pie is only so big and you got to slice it
up but um I prepared this budget the way Chris asked with a 3% increase knowing that 3% is still a cut to our department
um for wages though you did 10 right because of contractual obligations and the requirement that we've been going on under over the last number of years is the total bottom line keep it at three and yes I I increased the wages big time
um that's just to try and get a foreman um in before I retire I don't know that we'll be able to get one in for that amount of money but I had to start somewhere uh and
trying to fund that position some way and in order to do that I had to cut in many other areas in the budget yeah um is it perfect no uh would
um for Capital are you guys asking for anything for this year we put in for a couple of things one was a skid steer with a Milling attachment on it um that went through capital r I don't
know if you guys saw it yet and a pickup truck uh the pickup truck is to replace mine there's a lot of body rod on it um it's a 2015 we've got two other trucks in that same vintage with the
same we issues so if we don't start now uh we're going to have a real problem in a couple more years by by the time these other trucks come up the skid steer
um what was discussed was to not trade it it does need some work um but the biggest item that I need for that is the the Milling attachment is like $227,000 we use that on every project we
do we cut driveways with it we Mill the transitions we use it I I we bought that machine used the the Milling attachment and have been using it with the new Skid deer um all these years
it's milled a ton of work when I need that attachment I need it to work and the last Road job we did um some of the main bolts stripped out or broke sheared and we had to get
them back in so we could use it um the housing where the bolt threads into is marginal I don't know how long it's going to last that's why it's on its last leg that's one of the reasons we put that in this year um
but not huge dollar amount but it's it it adds up and um but the skit here you said is operational the one that you have now it's got some problems with the undercarriage we we again we use that for mowing roadside mowing uh prepping
every road that we do um the we put a new undercarriage the track the rubber track on it but there's a broken spring or something it's got a spring underneath there and it you can see that it's wearing on the underc
carriage it's not wearing on the it's not riding on the spring any any longer the rollers um it's going to be quite a job to fix it and um our thoughts were you're spending thousands of dollars what Chris and I
were discussing uh switching a snowblower attachment on and off that Toro lawnmower every year because it it's not a quick disconnect the Bobcat I can I can switch the snowblower in five minutes one guy that Toro takes two
mechanics from Toro to come up reprogram the machine put the thing on and take it off at the end of the season if you're just probably spending $4,000 every time he switches snow to Summertime operations with that machine and then he still can't even use it in the winter time until it warms up the temperature
it's got all these um protections on it you can't move the the Hydraulics until the hydraulic oil comes up the temp the Bobcat is like minutes and you're up you're out there and working on it and doesn't cost thousands of dollars a year so that
originally when Chris and I were talking he goes what if we gave that one to Jeremy I says got a snowblower attachment for it it's 2 seconds to throw it on it would work for him that was what Chris and I had talked about doing um whether the new
administrator buys that or not I don't know but that was the plan anyway one of the other things I wanted to comment on is our department is the same size almost I've got two um Co-op students working for us right
now and I'm hoping to find the a home for them permanent I I would like to they're both good kids they show up every day they work good attitude but what we've done over the years and I and I really have to thank the town and
the select boards that I've worked under for a number of years in Chris um they've supported us with a lot of equipment to make us more efficient and that's how we've been getting by without getting further
behind is making sure that we have as much efficiency in improved improving our operations with a number of different pieces of equipment to eliminate labor and um it has worked to
some degree to stay VI off the repercussions of being short-handed but the the budget that I proposed under what Chris had asked for um I think will work it will get us through another year
it isn't going to solve all the challenges that our department faces in the future but I don't see so the tree removal you said the trees are good right so that's why you had take yeah there's still there's there's
still money in the tree budget and an outside tree budget as well that's the yearly budget we we always are taking trees down in fact I'm waiting to hear back from the contractor to get a bucket truck in here to take some more down now but it isn't
like it was a few years ago we were taking thousands down it's limited number now um and the wind can blow and we don't have 20 trees falling across the road um these last couple of wind
storms we had no calls so I I think the the the program and being proactive taking these trees is really oh yeah helped and I'd much rather take them in daytime when it's nice out when you see what you're doing than at night in the middle of a torrential downpour trying
to clear a road is not fun and then storm Phase 2 that one was that's another big unknown item um I I am cutting a little bit in that but again there are
some Chris and I sort of put a number together years ago because there's a lot of unknowns in that program from year to year and next year again they're talking about another item making us do
some um well one project that we're supposed to do is uh at the West Street School and I mentioned it to Chris and to your consultant the civil engineer there there's
a there was five sites that were located or determined by our consultant for storm Phase 2 Under the present permit that we need to do retrofit projects on to improve storm quality it's in our current permit we were supposed to do one of them this year we did not do it
because we were waiting to see what was proposed at West Creek School it didn't make any sense for us to do a project and then have the contractor or the civil engineer rip what we just did out it made more sense to me to talk to them say yeah we can we can probably give you
20 $30,000 out of this budget to spend toward some improvements of storm water at the existing West Street School and we just put it off a year um I I will have to mention it in the
annual report that we didn't get it done but I think we have a good argument with the EPA and I I think they'll go along with it um that's a project that's going to have to be done there's a couple of others in town one is at Brown Ellison one was I don't call me to all the Deeds
they're in the pages and library of reports but in addition to that coming up in the next permit in addition to the remove and replace all of the catch basins in town there are talks of nitrogen and
phosphate removal I don't know what the ramifications of that are that involves treatment structures that are built put up currently we've been getting by with just additional street sweeping in the fall we have to sweep the roads and get
the leaves off them which is supposed to make a big difference in nitrogen um but the people that write these permits never have traveled out to gramian see that there's Leaf litter everywhere along the roads so us
sweeping 10 wheelbarrows of leaf off of the road is not really making a huge difference as far as I'm concerned ered um maybe it does in Boston but it doesn't here um but we're still going to have all of these items to comply with and
not knowing what we're up against I just hate to reduce that budget too much I did reduce it a little bit as you saw because we haven't spent down that budget um but there are I am earmarking it for some things
and that's one thing I would request that Chris and the next Town Administrator do is encumber those funds into next fiscal year for the West Street School or other areas that need storm water
improvements part of the permit yeah just looking in the past it was a substantially low amount so to tie up that amount of money it just seems really high it it does but if you don't know
what you're up against and what it's going to cost to do these programs because changes in the permit or whatnot it's um I don't spend the money if it's if it's not a legitimate storm water and Chris knows that so it just goes back
into the general fund um so really yeah it does tie it up for one year we're asking I I guess my thing and we don't know where the budget stands with everybody else CU you're our first Department coming y um if we need to
tighten up the budget it's accounts like that that might have to get shrunk a little bit because we don't know where we stand right now well um in in my case think about in my case here that shrinking that number any more than I already have would really give me pause
because I have no idea what the cost is going to be when this new permit comes into a into play and it and we don't know when a new permit will come in no it was it was due three years ago okay so that that's why I keep these monies there but you never know when okay next
year you got to comply with this um it should have been three years ago yeah um and I'm not going to spend the money on frivolous things that I don't need which is not what I'm saying I'm just saying like if another budget needs something
and we've tied it up already that it's not there to use is all I was saying yeah but so that's on the other hand if permit comes through and they tell you next year you got to do this this and that see both sides um you're kind of looking for the money at that point yeah
you're you're going to be scrambling because because you're almost you're you're appropriating the money for something that will be coming you just don't know when it's when it's going to headit when the deadline comes yeah it's being proactive instead of reactive which is good y I know Chris knows about
that and that's why he left it there and there I mean if we had a crystal ball I could say oh we're only going to need 10,000 take the rest and give it to me next year or whatever but I don't I have no clue how that's going to shake
out and even on the cost the EPA says you got to comply with this you got to reduce your nitrogen by x amount I have to hire a consultant they have to come up with a scheme they have to design this and then they say go build this so that might not be even anywhere near
enough I don't know it's just a placeholder I've asked questions about the line items and I had questions on I don't know if you guys have questions about any specific line item um pre-work outside budget Dave is it just that's
just your tree budget work yeah just outside budget is it's like hiring contractors to come in and but it's not an article that's in my budget okay um the article when we had
like a quarter million dollars or whatever set aside he we went to town meeting and appropriate I I yes I believe there's a little bit left in one of the Articles we've spent most of them
down so there there is a little bit left and we are still taking trees I mean it isn't like yeah I was just I was more curious if it was you guys or an outside contractor if you needed them we work with the outside contractors because we found that's the most efficient way to
do it um we're taking trees down for $300 a pot versus several thousand sure and we have to pick up the mess after even National Grid comes in National Grid just came in took two trees for us one on Crescent one on Porter two weeks
ago they put them on the ground they leave the M for us to pick up sure so rather than us come back in and pick up the mess after the fact we hire a contractor they put with a bucket they'll put the tree on the ground we'll have it all cleaned up the same day and we do multiples we'll do four times as
many trees in a day than National Grid well with with a with an outside contract or an our crew fair enough David how is the so you're down one one person right now I've been down a person all year all winter and that makes it
really tough and you just got a complaint in what today yes from they have it from a person on East Street complaining about the paving job out there well I went out and looked at it he he said I didn't respond to a an
email the email came in right after or during that long last long storm where I was out like 30 hours so I'm not saying we're perfect we sometimes miss an email but I check my emails every day and I usually respond
to everyone within a day or two um on items like that um his driveway I can show you a picture I've got it on my phone um has got a belly in it it's settling well my my my concern is that
you know now we're you know goinging to spring will coming up the summer which is starting to be a lot of projects comeing up and stuff like that and if if you're down one person already and then you know you come into the spring the summer people start taking vacations and
you know how's that going to impact your world all work that you that you need to get done so I think you know it just kind of you know prioritize you know is I need to hire someone that department you know he's been trying I know I'm making up the difference with a couple
of Co-op kids uh they're part- timr but like I said I would love to well to the point it might you know it might be a time for a serious conversation as what you know the wages wages are and stuff like that because you know not feeling it's not the answer
no it was the last snowstorm you don't know the half of it I had one one employee was in California on longterm employee it was family deal and I I try to encourage all the employees not to take in the winter because we can't afford losing anybody normally it's all
hands- on deck for the storms this one exception I figured ah we'll get by yeah the wor the worst storm of the Season 30 hours out and you know most of my guys are home I'm getting a call from Jason Richards it's flooding everywhere
the town's going underwater I'm out in the loader I got a shovel I'm up to my knees in water I'm 67 years old and I'm out there shoveling like a crazy fool trying to get water going and all these catch Bas and everything that's after we had already tried the day before to open
up everything and prepare for that storm coming in when we're when we're short-handed the rest of us have to pick up the slack that's the point I'm making and we were really short-handed during that storm the there
was I did end up having to call most of the guys or quite a few of the crew back in after we had been out for 20 something hours some of the guys were out way past midnight the next day and we didn't get everything we we missed Smith Leo and Kellogg and we paid dearly
for that the next day there was six inches of ice on that road and and a lot with with that storm a lot of the towns and cities struggled with it we we're far in far worse shape than us yes it just one of those things that happened the way the storm came and it froze and
you know s freezing and things like that so uh you know a lot of complaints in a lot of different areas but it's just sometimes it happens but I I I just think you know um for your department and and really trying to move forward for the Future these are really serious
things we need to look at we have a problem that that's happening now and we need to find a solution for it because it's not going to get any better when no it's not you know you need someone staff and and you have now that you can count on depend on and there you know there's certain licenses that people have e
things like had you know as you said you have someone that maybe retiring in the near future yourself and things like that and you know we do have a new town ministrator comes coming in and I think it's up to the sport try to start figuring things out you know to make that process a little bit easier for that person as well
because please don't wait till our department implodes no that's that's exactly what I'm saying is that you know and I think you know crystal said uh earlier we need to be proactive instead of trying to reactive what so I think looking at the wages of
the other towns and trying to be um at least competive at least at least competitive um with them I think is otherwise you're going to lose got again you're going to lose people you're going to lose the few good people that I've got one young guy that's just got it we've just got him as we originally got
him a CDL we just got him his foisting license he's just coming up to speed but he's he's um he's doing a lot of repairs too um I hope he stays with us a good many years um he's a good employee I
don't want to lose him um the rest of our crew is all like me getting gray and aging out and uh so I think I'm the liaison for the highway department so Dave we can sit down Chris
has time um me you and Chris can sit down and come up with a plan to move forward with not only the new employee but a prevailing a competitive wage that's comparable to the other towns I really think you got to bring the new administrator in too I mean Chris she
here is only here for a short term and I I think you got to get have to be a Friday you got to get byy in from the new person that's going to be here long well after hopefully I'm gone and agreed I did suggest that in recent weeks that we need to get her involved in some of those conversations that's some of the
stuff that was really giving me pause about the last interim because if you're only here for a short time you don't break everything and walk out the door and leave the next person to come that's just management 101 this this board has a responsibility to to the town um so
say is you know we'll have that conversation with the the New Town Administrator as well but it's just these are things I just can't wait really can so I'll have um Kathy reach out to Tammy Chris and myself well and
we'll figure out a time to get together and figure it out sooner rather than later I don't want to wait until June until she's here fulltime let's get it moving so that you can get someone in there now yeah exactly but let's get it done now instead of waiting
I think that's definitely um definitely so I don't have any other questions with the budget I think um pretty comparable to last year's great and I don't either David and you
made a good point you know it's easy to say okay we're going to go up 3% um you know that may cover you know some wages and things like that but when material goes up 15% it doesn't help yeah it's a cut no matter any way you slice or dice it more
of a guideline you know for the Departments but wean and that's why you come in front like certain things change supply and demand we get that well I'm I'm a lot more comfortable with Chris because I knew that if there was an issue like the trees or whatever we would sit down and talk and he would
handle it we would we put our heads together and find a solution to the problem but when you get somebody else coming in and it's an unknown quantity you know am I stuck with this and they're going to say see you next year that's that's a real problem and
that's something I think board didn't want to make sure that was we definitely weren't doing is that you know we you know we do have a new count administrator coming in and we want to you know really you know we want to tighten up the package if you will as much as we can yeah so you know passing on on to to
her and you know we want to make sure we're doing things right so and we understand that every year you know there's different things that can change you're always you got to be reflective and figure out you know what's movable what's not so and that's just being
cognizant of your department and its needs so we appreciate the work that you put into the budget and if it's any consolation I plow that nasty storm also so I feel your pain on and I think you guys did a great job throughout the town
even if you missed the road we have subcontractors in chick that missed the entire parking lots and it was not fun trying to clean those no it we we paid dearly for it the next couple of days it took us a couple of days to get everything under control and I don't know what happened to that guy's email
but the I looked at the driveway in case you're concerned about that we sort of skipped over that yeah East Street was was milled 1 and 1/2 to 2 in down everywhere you can see the curb on each
side of his driveway there is no way that the raised up 2 in what's happening is his driveway's got a belly in it settlement in it it's old it needs to be replaced it was never built correctly to begin with I'm not going to go give him a new driveway because it wasn't put in
right if you look at the neighbor's driveway it comes to the top of the curb and I normally recommend that when there's cape God burm go over the curb don't cut the curb just go right over it you can drive right over it and that gives you a few inches
of grade yeah if the road grade ever changes an inch or two you're not taking Road water you're your driveways up a couple of inches higher that isn't the case in the the guy's complaint and are you saying I should put a curve in front of my driveways and stop water from
coming down we we uh we built a new catch Bas across from you just send it to your neighbor well thank you very much Dave for coming in thank you David okay didn't mean to take up so much of your time sorry no it's all it's all
good stuff it's informational that's all we need right so uh does the board have anything for next time it don't so as far as the chart for the high school options committee um you guys are okay with uh John Matthews
contacting Kathy and we're going to put them on for next time yeah figure a charge for that and then uh we really need to have that discussion about the town Annex and what we're going to do so that needs it's on Old business and we do have two executive sessions tonight
you know Jos almost set up a meeting with the the school committee it seems like had a lot of questions as far as this you know can and I think his concern he could and with Dave too but I think his biggest concern was trying to come up with the committee on different
options moving forward so that we're not just looking at one thing we're looking at all the options for the high school yeah so do you want him to start there with the school committee and with Dave and then I think that's see what you guys come up with for Solutions that's the
the invested party in it is the school committee sure so I would say you superintendent I would say that's where to start good and did Kathy send you the correspondence from the B Town board I did not okay so I did receive an email
which Kathy's going to be sending to you guys with interest from another select board member in belter town uh with starting the talk of regionalization so it's something she was really just questioning like what are what are the questions that need to
be asked who directs us um what like what are the first steps in this proc process so I did talk to Chris Martin right before the meeting and he said he's going to reach out to desie they have a contact there that can start that conversation on what the steps would entail I'm not saying that we would or
we wouldn't do it because I don't know it's up to the taxpayers in the end um but I think if other towns are reaching out it's because there's a need for it and I know we Face a deficit every year um with the school systems I know sou
P's facing a deficit Bel Town's facing ing a deficit it seems like regionalization might be one of the options I think it's always good to uh explore options have those conversations because then you know
right and if you don't you never do know sure so I'll have uh Kathy uh send the email from that select board member but I think that would be a good conversation for you to start with Mr Matthews and the school um
superintendent school committee and go from there so Kathy could you read out reach out to John um and just or John Matthews I said Edwards and John Matthews and just see if he wants to start there because like Glenn said he has a lot of questions that we won't necessarily be able to
answer because we don't know what they're doing behind the scenes either yep I can send it to again because I just sent it to Chris uh this afternoon all right and then I know we started the park and wreck department I mean we're going to be
doing the budget and Mr petus is here that's something that we really I don't know how to go about starting it I know we had a lot of fish to fry so to speak but I think it needs to be part of the budget I did reach out again to last week like you asked from Glenn I didn't
get anything back all right I can call them I'll call but where are you that what have you done so far so honestly um not much because because we've had other things going on that we had to take care of first we've had pretty much two meetings almost every week if not
every week a meeting um trying to do other things in the town um so I know Glen Durham was reaching out to the Belzer toown W department and he was collecting information from them um we haven't heard back from him yet but I have his telephone number so I'll call
him that might be easier um than trying to do it through emails um so I spoke to him over a year ago yeah spoke to spoke to Amy and nley you know you know it's it's not that difficult a thing to do it
just takes the process to do going it cost a few bucks of course everything costs a few bucks right but you know there like d this is where I think I you really need to look at it besides the budget you ever strategically look at
each department what if their needs are and maybe they don't need what they have be better used over here and used to do that in school system I think you need to do that as a town too like I just listening here why didn't the building department help out when D need to help
CL during that storm I mean these people do this I mean we're at one town why don't we do this and share FTE yeah share share help when we go to town that's what we're here for it's not to build empires of our own and I can't do
that because I mean I just think I it's easier St down I was going to say they were out I don't know how many hours building spent uh Building Maintenance spent out but I know they were out they were some had somebody at the um if not one I know one it could have been two
people at the um safety complex the whole time taking care of that and then um these buildings came afterwards and I think honestly Jim what it comes down to is there's just not enough time for a part-time board to do all this so that's what we're facing right now is I really
think it need to be two other equ it should be a s and that would have to be something that is passed through the town right I agree I agree as well it's time we move to the next Century here keep doing the
same things with the same way even like Dave I mean we know this he should have a foring with him that be ready to take over I mean it's just it's a no-brainer yes it costs money but again look at what we have and I always say this we're not we're not that poor a town I think
we have to stop building the bo thing when we find money all over the place here or there we found $5 million to do the West Street I mean we can find the money we're not that four time I don't know maybe you disagree
with me I don't I I don't disagree you I I think you know we're we're a a town that a lot of people like to be part of a lot of people like to move into for a reason I think we're very
uh uh fiscally responsible with the money that we spend and I I think we hear that I know I hear that the board members here you know we have the the accountant come in and explain things to us and we have our Audits and things like that and you're right but again it's just
sometimes I know this board here uh the past couple months has just been as Chris said been straight out there's been two meetings and these meetings have been 2 and a half three and a half hours long we walked out here one night it 7:00 and we started at 5:30 so and
again we prioritizing things administrators already no seems like it well on a third I mean but that we've we've hired and again it's just it's a process and and it's a long process you
know right now we're working with a a Building Commissioner that's taking time as soon as that's done we a fire chief that's going to be taken front some stage we're have to the for the fire chief no
building um we are in negotiations with him up currently he had some dealings with him he seems to be a decent guy think he's ready P but to your point it's it's well takeen Jim and and definitely we like to
have a a Parks corre Department I think the board has agreed on that before um well have definitely look at that and Chris said she'll follow with uh Glen dur dur Durham and and got see where we are with that too and I'll do
that this week um because if we want to on the uh 2026 budget it's got to be done now because we're doing those now tell me you call me too I think I've got some I offered my help like I said Park Rec we had before but we need we need a
board under him or her you know yeah unage just to surv superv and and again it's money but also I told this is a fe based kind of thing people AR going to be doing things for free be Fe so you can build up
this I mean just think of what's to do for you know new FR is been the gym sitting there but we're not really doing much with that at all we're utilizing it to its full potential yesterday walk looked at that whole Big Field in front like what are we doing here you know can't say well we need to save this for
chared they Park once a year when they sitting here you know yeah so much more can be done hopefully use the money from the logging and put into the park to do something there make it look a little better than it does be start us to put some trash cans
here think I said that before people disagreement with put some trash cans in there you know people who been empty once in a while rather than people put the dog stuff and just leaving it there in the ground let them throw in some well everyone without putting in the GRS like you see you know but everyone in the town um or all the neighboring towns
which is what we had decided was carry in carry out because all the towns are doing that it just it became a point where people were dumping their household trash in our dumpster the the trash so we're not K are being filled up I'm just talking regular trash K it's not the big dumpster just trash can us
to have which we do have it at the dog park and Jeremy enters or empties it periodically but so to ask the other two board members of the park and wck Department are you guys okay with me meeting with Glenn and Jim or does there have to be a committee no can we just
start and have the meeting and figure out like outline it and then I I think we start we got to start moving forward afterwards yeah thank you all right so we'll set up that meeting I'll figure out what Glenn's
availability is and I don't have your email or your telephone number but Kathy probably does or no might okay for to okay perfect so we'll make that meeting happen this week or next
week with the dog thing again uh the bylaw um it's going to be on the next annual we have to do the posting and everything we had a deadline for the special to meeting first but yes all right so does the board have
anything else because we have a special town lawyer waiting for us yes all right thank you very much for coming thank you thank you Jim so we will now enter executive session 30 a-21 a-2 to conduct strategy sessions in
preparation for negotiations with non-union Personnel or to conduct Collective baring sessions or contract negotiations with non-union personnel and I apologize I should have read the other one first because we're going to start with that first executive session 38-21 a-3 to discuss strategy with
respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares and we will only come out to adjourn the or the um original meeting roll call vote do frame
I leonti I sexon I thank you thank you thank you